Last night, the Black Music Action Coalition hosted its second annual Music in Action Awards Gala at The Beverly Hilton to honor artists, executives, businesses, entrepreneurs, activists, and companies that have utilized their platforms to effect social change over the past year that have utilized their platforms to effect social change over the past year. Hosted by Coco Jones (Bel Air) and entertainment/lifestyle/
culture figure Kenny Burns, the evening honored Lil Baby, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Jon “Big Jon” Platt, Kevin Liles, Amazon Music, The Recording Academy and more. The 2022 BMAC Music in Action Awards Honorees included:
- Lil Baby (GRAMMY® Award-winning rapper) – Quincy Jones Humanitarian Award
- Jon “Big Jon” Platt (Chairman and CEO of Sony Music Publishing) – Clarence Avant Trailblazer Award
- Kevin Liles (CEO of 300 Elektra Entertainment) – BMAC Social Impact Award
- Amazon Music (Tim Hinshaw, Rochelle Balogun, Josh Beas & Sierra Lever) – BMAC Social Impact Award
- The Recording Academy (CEO Harvey Mason Jr. and Co-Presidents Valeisha Butterfield Jones & Panos A. Panay) – BMAC Social Impact Award
- Nikole Hannah-Jones (Journalist), Brittany K. Barnett (Attorney and Author) & Joi Brown (Founder of Culture Creators) – BMAC Change Agent Award
- Congresswoman Maxine Waters – BMAC Icon Award
- David Ali (Music Manager) – BMAC BLACK: Future. Now. Award
- Shirley Halperin (Variety’s Executive Editor of Music) – BMAC 365 Award
- Gail Mitchell (Billboard’s Executive Director, R&B/Hip-Hop) – BMAC 365 Award
The Gala featured presenters including Anthony Anderson, Tyler, the Creator, D-Nice, Warryn Campbell and Leland Barnett. Additional attendees included Daniel Caesar, G-Eazy, Jimmy Jam, Irving Azoff, Congressman Hank Johnson, Congressman Jamaal Bowman, P and Coach K of Quality Control, Corey Gamble, Broderick Hunter and more.
Special highlights from the evening included:
- Willie “Prophet” Stiggers kicked off the festivities with a powerful speech: “We knew that if there wasn’t an organization that would hold each other accountable, it would fall upon deaf ears… What we are experiencing tonight are individuals who decided to use their platform to go one step further.”
- Kevin Liles accepted his award and inspired the audience by referencing Dr. Martin Luther King’s leadership style: “The most powerful leadership is not giving orders or creating plans for others to execute. The best way to lead is by taking care of your people and your culture and lead by example.”
- In his acceptance speech, Jon “Big Jon” Platt credited the pioneers of hip-hop and rap including Sean “Diddy” Combs and Death Row Records for paving the way for generations to come.
- Quincy Jones III (QD3) read a letter for Lil Baby written by his father while presenting him with the Quincy Jones Humanitarian Award. Moved by the night’s honorees, Lil Baby emphasized the importance of unity saying “It’s going to take all of us to stick together and stay together.”
- Brittany K. Barnett highlighted her criminal justice work to a standing ovation: “I’m so grateful for everybody who has supported me on this journey especially my clients, as I was working to free them from America’s cages, they were freeing me too.”
- During the program entertainment lawyer Dina LaPolt introduced Congressman Hank Johnson and Congressman Jamaal Bowman who had established the Restoring Artistic Protection Act (RAP Act). Congressman Bowman shared, “the RAP Act is about ensuring that we are not criminalizing hip-hop, we are not criminalizing rap and we are not criminalizing black men.”
In addition to honoring the award recipients, the event celebrated the organization’s accomplishments and highlighted upcoming initiatives. Over the last year, BMAC has been instrumental in addressing systemic racism within the music business and advocating on behalf of Black artists, songwriters, producers, managers, agents, executives, lawyers and other impassioned industry professionals. In 2021, the organization launched the inaugural Music Industry Action Report Card, which is a measure of accountability and a call to action to the music industry for Black executives, artists, vendors, and stakeholders to have a voice, visibility, participation and ownership on par with the revenue generated from Black music and culture. Most recently, BMAC worked alongside Congressman Hank Johnson (GA-04) and Congressman Jamaal Bowman (NY-16) to establish the Restoring Artistic Protection Act (RAP Act), which would protect recording artists from the wrongful use of their lyrics against them in criminal and civil proceedings.
The Black Music Action Coalition Board of Directors includes Willie “Prophet” Stiggers, Caron Veazey, Ashaunna Ayars, Naima Cochrane, Jamil Davis, Shawn Holiday, Damien Smith, and Courtney Stewart. The BMAC Advisory Board includes Clarence Avant, Irving Azoff and Quincy Jones.
BMAC’s Second Annual Music in Action Awards Gala is supported by Primary Wave, Live Nation, AEG Presents, Spotify, Amazon Music, Saban Music, and Rémy Martin.For more information regarding the Black Music Action Coalition, please visit bmacoalition.org.
© 2022, Seth "Digital Crates" Barmash. All rights reserved.
